Tips for getting tickets in Europe:

[Evilo]

What about exchange of currency? Like US/Canadian Dollar for Euros? British Pound for Euros? And vice-versa?


Train? I get that bullet trains in France are super expensive, but what about normal trains? How about renting a car?


French police are notorious for preying on tourists with speed cameras (we also ran into big problems with Gucci wearing Italia police as well). I think I would rather spend the extra money for train than deal with speed cameras.

Train is expensive IMO and engish trains are ALWAYS late.
I'd for for plane really. If the trip is booked in advance, the tickets will be very cheap. And he'll save tons of time too.

 

[Stray Wasp]

Train is expensive IMO and engish trains are ALWAYS late.
I'd for for plane really. If the trip is booked in advance, the tickets will be very cheap. And he'll save tons of time too.

English trains are disgracefully expensive - particularly if you want to travel on weekends without having booked in advance.

I don't find they are always late, however. They appear to preserve their tardiness for the trips where I must arrive somewhere at a specific time.

 

[Evilo]

French trains are usually on time.
They're however expensive too and sometimes they just aren't there at all.

 

[robertmac43]

If you choose to go with budget airlines just remember that they will try and screw you with baggage fees. If you are able to, pack just one bag that is carry on size and you will save a lot of money!

 

[Chimaera]

Also, apologies to our resident English posters, but don't spend 3 days in Liverpool or Manchester. Or any English city. Pack on more time in Italy or Spain.

/Ducks

I like England a ton, but beyond London, I would agree. That said, everything is so close in England that you can go from town to town and see different stuff.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

It’s a good idea to check the club site to see their rules on flares and bottles of urine too. You don’t want to show up with flares or urine jugs that exceed the club limits, they will turn you away.

 

[Chimaera]

Trains can be expensive, but I found it was the easiest at times.

Driving in Europe is pretty easy as well, though I would not suggest it in a number of places. Driving to a big city is fine, get out in the countryside and explore. But once you’re in a city, take the subway or bus or whatever.

You also couldn’t pay me to drive in some places (Italy is too much for me). I’ve found driving in Germany, France, Austria, England and Ireland relatively easy. It took a couple of days to focus in England/Ireland with the opposite sides and all, and things aren’t marked like they are in the US for all of the places. So if you drive, a new SIM card or a phone with international (or load your map in WiFi first) is a must. The autobahn in Germany is not as exciting as it sounds. Most of the common areas have speed limits, and it’s only so fun to see sports cars fly by while you’re over on the right lane for so long.

 

[Evilo]

Yeah avoid England.
When you can visit Italy, France or Spain three of the most beautiful countries in the world you don't spend time in England. Scotland maybe. But not England.
Andalusia especially IMO.

 

[SouthGeorge]

Definitely not as easy as this. A lot of prem teams make you buy a suite ticket the first time you go through with a free membership. Technically it is face value, but usually that equates to a ticket that is 110ish pounds where as the general stands ranges from 35-60 pounds.

When I went to the Emirates I got lucky and nabbed a single ticket on Stub hub for only 90 Canadian and I was 6 rows up. Couldn't get anything like that with a membership.

I'm not sure what you did wrong. I've had two friends move to London and it was simple as that as getting tickets for all 3 of us for Arsenal. Were you trying to go to a Champions league game or something?

 

[robertmac43]

I'm not sure what you did wrong. I've had two friends move to London and it was simple as that as getting tickets for all 3 of us for Arsenal. Were you trying to go to a Champions league game or something?

Did they get the payed membership with Arsenal? That makes it easier. The free one can make it tough to get tickets.

My issue came up with getting tickets to a Brighton prem game; With a free membership you have to go through the suite first time. If you get the payed one you can bypass it and go straight to the general seating.

 

[SouthGeorge]

Did they get the payed membership with Arsenal? That makes it easier. The free one can make it tough to get tickets.

My issue came up with getting tickets to a Brighton prem game; With a free membership you have to go through the suite first time. If you get the payed one you can bypass it and go straight to the general seating.

Yeah, they probably paid it was only like 40 quid. I can see what you are saying it's about the same if only going for one game. But at least it's official. Secondary market is frowned upon for EPL too right?

 

[robertmac43]

Yeah, they probably paid it was only like 40 quid. I can see what you are saying it's about the same if only going for one game. But at least it's official. Secondary market is frowned upon for EPL too right?

Yeah the second market is a tough one to navigate, not as prominent or regulated as it is here in NA. I used stubhub to get Arsenal tickets in the supporters section for a Europa game, the ticket didn't get electronically send to me until the day before the game which was a little nerve racking.

 

[Chimaera]

Yeah avoid England.
When you can visit Italy, France or Spain three of the most beautiful countries in the world you don't spend time in England. Scotland maybe. But not England.
Andalusia especially IMO.

I don’t agree at all.

I mean, it wouldn’t be my first stop out of those choices, but there’s a ton to do in London. Especially for history stuff (not saying there isn’t a lot of that elsewhere), and I do think some of the countryside can be a bit underrated.

I mean, there’s some overrated stuff in all of those places, and some of where to go can be dictated on when you’re going as well. Italy dead middle of summer sucks for tourism. So damn hot. Spain has a lot to see, but I found I was good with a few days in the major cities and moving on.

I don’t think you can go wrong with spending time in any of those places. Heck, I’ll just say the obvious and go. Doesn’t matter where

 

[Evilo]

Really?
You can spend 2 weeks in Andalousia and never be done with it. Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba, Antequera, Arcos de la Frontera, Ronda, etc... Amazing.

Even comparing London to Paris or Rome... I don't see it in any shape or form.
I like hot weather, so I don't care about going in the summer (and besides, do we know when he goes?).

 

[Chimaera]

To each their own. I enjoyed my time in England immensely. I also enjoyed Italy a lot, and I certainly need to spend more time in Spain and France.

Getting back to the main discussion, for seeing football, and getting tickets I think this forum is going to skew towards going to England. Whether you agree or not

 

[Live in the Now]

I would spend time in England but that's largely because it's absolutely hot as hell here and it would be nice to have a break. There are also very specific things I would like to see. It's pretty easy to see the games you want and bail quickly though.

When I went to Mexico a few years ago I did a lot of stuff that I wasn't expecting. Like for example taking a damn speedboat from the beach into the jungle. You can't do anything similar to that whatsoever in England, so I certainly understand why people are telling you to avoid it. But if this is a football trip and you're trying to see some great teams then that's what you should do.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

I mean, you could get from Barcelona to Liverpool by train. But you're going to have to go up through France, through the Chunnel, through London, and make connections to Liverpool. For two weeks, it also might not be worth it getting a Eurorail pass, when odds are you're looking at maybe three or four train tickets tops. Eurorail really pays off when you're doing a new city each two or three days over a couple of weeks. 2 weeks? I wouldn't think it makes sense to get the full ticket.



I'll be honest, if you're doing Spain, you're probably better off not trying to hike all the way up to Liverpool if it was me. I'd recommend from Spain sticking with either southern France or Italy as your offshoot or maybe doing a London. The transfer time, unless you're getting a direct flight from Barcelona to Liverpool (which might or might not be expensive, I don't know) is going to be a bit of a negative. Direct train from London to Liverpool is a couple of hours (2-3). That's easy enough. Train from Barcelona to Liverpool is forever.

I figure that if you go to Europe England is a must especially, since its so close. Like I said Liverpool isn't imperative but since its 2 hours away I figured i can quickly visit there for a day trip.

To get from London to Barcelona I could not more strongly recommend flying out of Luton. With all that advance notice the flight would be dirt cheap.

The plan is to London-Paris-Geneva-Rome-Barcelona-Montreal. This way my movement wouldn't be erratic.

I would spend time in England but that's largely because it's absolutely hot as hell here and it would be nice to have a break. There are also very specific things I would like to see. It's pretty easy to see the games you want and bail quickly though.

Well its cold as f*** here so, I need the heat. lol

 

[Evilo]

If you go on a football trip only, then yes, focus on the best stadiums and atmospheres. Valencia is GREAT. Marseille it must be said is pretty unique. Parc des Princes can be very good depending on the importance of the game. Dortmund obviously.
If you want to pay cheap and have a GREAT time in a stadium, go to Lens. They're in L2, but the atmosphere is amazing. That's for France though, I'm sure you'll have to ask some german fans, they'll have some good advice.

 

[Evilo]

Why Geneva though? Nothing to see football wise.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Why Geneva though? Nothing to see football wise.

It's not really just for football. These cities are rich in history and vibrant. Football is an added bonus. I really wanted to go to Marseille however, I was talked out of it. By a couple of people.

 

[Evilo]

Well, it's your choice, but there is more history in plenty of cities. Geneva is MEH. Go to Valencia or as I said Sevilla. Beautiful cities (especially Sevilla). Marseille is beautiful, but if you go there, Nice, Cannes are amazing.
Why where you talked out of going to Marseille? Nice city, amazing atmosphere in the stadium (one of the best in the world I'd say), great history (greek city) but of course asshole regarding their football team

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Well, it's your choice, but there is more history in plenty of cities. Geneva is MEH. Go to Valencia or as I said Sevilla. Beautiful cities (especially Sevilla). Marseille is beautiful, but if you go there, Nice, Cannes are amazing.
Why where you talked out of going to Marseille? Nice city, amazing atmosphere in the stadium (one of the best in the world I'd say), great history (greek city) but of course ******* regarding their football team

It was by my French prof who said there was a high crime rate. Not that big of a deal but a friend of mine said since your already going to Barcelona you get the coastline experience there which makes Marseille visit redundant. If Geneva is as meh as you say then I don't mind swapping it for another city but it looks very nice.

 

[Evilo]

Oh indeed, there's a high crime rate, though it's mainly in some surburbs. Besides, any US city has a higher crime rate (no I'm not kidding).
I think Nurnberg, Wien, Zurich, Venice, Naples, Sevilla, Valencia, Zaragoza, Nice, Granada, Lisbon are all nice cities than Geneva, that's just in the area (St Petersburg is incredible). That's only my opinion of course.
The Alhambra in Granada is possibly the most beautiful place in the world. I've travelled a lot through Europe, the US, Australia, Africa, etc... And Andalousia is to me the most incredible sight.

EDIT : Marseille has 18 violent act (doesn't mean murder) for 1000 people in a year.

 

[Live in the Now]

It was by my French prof who said there was a high crime rate. Not that big of a deal but a friend of mine said since your already going to Barcelona you get the coastline experience there which makes Marseille visit redundant. If Geneva is as meh as you say then I don't mind swapping it for another city but it looks very nice.

There's a high crime rate, but I went to Mexico which is by every standard way worse and had the time of my life. I don't think that matters tbh.

 

[Prntscrn]

I find the french riviera to be amazing. Not a big fan of France otherwise though, but maybe I just happened to have a bad experience. Being able to communicate in french for sure wouldn't hurt..

I agree with Evilo about southern Spain if that would cross your mind. I would also like to add Nerja with the balcony of Europe to the list of cities Evilo posted